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How will Obama address climate change in his second term?

Guests

Manik Roy: Vice President for Strategic Outreach for the Center for Climate and Energy Solutions

Michael Toman: Lead Economist on Climate Change in the Development Research Group and Manager of the Energy and Environment Team at the World Bank

President Obama's second inaugural speech signaled a renewed focus on climate change. He said:

We, the people, still believe that our obligations as Americans are not just to ourselves, but to all posterity. We will respond to the threat of climate change, knowing that the failure to do so would betray our children and future generations. Some may still deny the overwhelming judgment of science, but none can avoid the devastating impact of raging fires, and crippling drought, and more powerful storms. The path towards sustainable energy sources will be long and sometimes difficult. But America cannot resist this transition; we must lead it. We cannot cede to other nations the technology that will power new jobs and new industries - we must claim its promise. That's how we will maintain our economic vitality and our national treasure - our forests and waterways; our croplands and snowcapped peaks. That is how we will preserve our planet, commanded to our care by God. That's what will lend meaning to the creed our fathers once declared.

But what power does the president have to make change with a gridlocked Congress?

For now, it seems highly unlikely that he'll be able to get a bill through Congress. After taking office in 2009 intent on pushing broad climate legislation through Congress, he hit resistance and the bill died in 2010. Prospects for comprehensive legislation seem even bleaker amid gridlock on Capitol Hill.

But the president does have in his executive arsenal one powerful--and extremely controversial--climate-change weapon he could wield without any help from Congress.

Under the terms of a Supreme Court ruling and the nation's clean-air laws, the Environmental Protection Agency is required to issue a regulation that would force existing industrial polluters, such as coal-fired power plants and oil refineries, to slash their emissions of the greenhouse gases that cause global warming. The rule could have a profound environmental impact by reducing the nation's global-warming pollutants by up to 20 percent.

Michael Toman, manager of The World Bank's Energy and Environment Team, and Manik Roy, vice president for strategic outreach for the Center for Climate and Energy Solutions, join The Daily Circuit Monday, Jan. 28 to discuss which policies they think would be most effective in addressing climate change and the roadblocks to enacting them.